Viking and Slavic Ornamental Design vol. 1 from WHP

Trzyglaw by Marek Hapon (Wiki Commons)

Salvete Omnes,
coming this April the American (and Australian and New Zealand as well) book stores will see the newest edition of the famous 'Viking and Slavic Ornamental Design' volume 1, by Igor Gorewicz et al, originally published by Wydawnictwo Triglav from Szczecin, Poland.

It was the ancient stronghold of Szczecin on the banks of Odra (Oder ) River in western Pomerania on the southern Baltic shores, where a thousand years ago stood many pagan temples and where among other deities the pagan Wkrzanie (Ukrani - a western Slavic tribe) worshiped Slavic god known as Trzyglaw (Triglav). The island of Wolin was the site of the famous viking-Slavic stronghold Jomsborg (Jomsviking saga), and on the island of Rugia or Rana ( Rugen) stood famous temple of Slavic god Swiatowid (Svetovid) where a 'holy' white stallion was used in the horse oracle ceremeony by the Slavic priests well into the second half of the XII century (until the Danish conquest and destruction of the Svetovid temple on the Cape Arkona in 1168AD)

Deities of Ranowie or Rugianie (Rani - western Slavic tribe) by Marek Hapon

Swiatowid by Marek Hapon

Alfons Mucha, Swiatowid worship on Rugia

Mucha's apotheosis of the Slavs

The books represent the combined 'transatlantic' effort of Winged Hussar Publishing LLC and Wydawnictwo Triglav.
Consecutive months of 2019 will see release of volume 2 and subsequently volume 3 of this great series.
sample pages of the volume


 

 
valete

Sir John Smithe - Instructions, Observations, and Orders Mylitarie

Salvete Omnes,


sir John Smithe or Smith, XVI century English gentleman and soldier, wrote  and had his military treatise published in 1594AD and reprinted in 1595 AD.

The entire book - 'Instructions, obseruations, and orders mylitarie : Requisite for all chieftaines, captaines, and higher and lower men of charge, and officers to understand, knowe, and observe' -  is available on google books for reading or download.



Inside there are some very interesting observations from a soldier who served on the Catholic sides seeing plenty of  action in Kingdom of France, Holy Roman Empire and in Hungaries (Hungarian Kingdom divided between the Ottoman  and Imperial powers) for about 20 years, finally returning to England circa 1572AD.

He wrote about lance bearing cavalry of the times: stradiots, men-at-arms, boder horse (particular to English-Scottish borderlands)light cavalry, and demi-lancers. He covered the equipment (like the estoc to be carried under rider's thigh in the manner of Turks or Hungarians), training, and tactics and many other things in his work.
I have just started reading and studying this treatise, looking forward to see much interesting information.

Valete
ps
all armor images are from Wiki Commons and these examples represent 2nd half of the XVI century uppermost crust of chivalry and armored horsemen. such armor could have been used by the winged hussars, be it in Polish-Lithuanina Commonwealth or Hungaries.

Komaniecki Art - sale

Salvete Omnes,

my friend from Poland Krzysztof Komaniecki aka Komaniecki Art put some of his creations on sale - you can inquire within directly.
 

 

 


 

 

 


Nota bene Krzysztof is a skilled model soldier sculptor.


 

 

Valete

Happy Nowruz - it is Spring

Ushta te,
Happy Nowruz to all on this first day of Spring 2019
some sketches-in-progress in the theme of the ancient, pre-Islamic, Iranian people - here Parthian kontophoroi or kontos (lance) bearing horseman and Saka warrior woman.


 


nota bene yesterday in some of the ancient Nowruz-celebrating countries they jumped over the bonfires - custom known as Chaharshanbe Suri  attached link to a scholarly article on the Good and Evil in ancient Iranian Festivals.
Khoda Hafez

Posters from Buffalo Bill's Wild West

 
Salvete Omnes,
Spring is so near  - we have been searching for a puppy of the Old German Shepherd type - so to bring some movement there is horse Americana as exemplified by the poster art of the world famous Buffalo Bill's Wild West show:





 




nota bene after some discussion on our Facebook horse group I found some Polish press articles about the Buffalo Bill's show visiting southern Poland (under the Austro-Hungarian empire) in the beginning of the XX century, so in the future I shall look at them closer. But in general Polish media of the period - daily newspapers from Lwow and Krakow - were hostile towards the show, not only because the managers of the show treated Polish provinces as some sort of German eastern lands, where German was spoken. "Austrian' Poland was the horse country, especially in her eastern parts, with large horse exports all over Europe(including France and Great Britain) and Polish commentators knew much about horses and horse riding
Valete

Tournament watercolors by annonymous

Salvete Omnes,
for the medieval and early modern manuscripts the French National Library known under its digital name as  Gallica is a fantastic treasure to explore.
This fine status can be exemplified by this collection: dated to 1530AD, collected, during the 1760s,  by the author of Munchausen Tales R.E. Raspe.
 vive la France - one almost wants to shout seeing all this good work the French librarians and French taxes are doing in furtherance of our common European patrimony.

The watercolors pertain or seem to pertain to the activities of dukes of Brunswick within the Holy Roman Empire (already in the throes of the religious and social wars provoked by the raise of protestant heresy or protestant revolution; naturally a view dependent on the position one holds regarding these early modern conflicts in Christian Europe) and show the glory and opulence of the early XVI century Imperial chivalry and knightly martial arts of that epoch.

Note the size of lances - especially the lance points: sharp and tournament -type , lance proportions and potion of lance handle;  and especially the richness of horse caparisons' paintings and adornments (the jingle bells) - imagine the number of painters and other artisans employed for this works.
We cannot say much about the steeds or destriers - they seem muscular and powerful, but for the lower legs they are well covered with trappings. Curb-bits seem the norm, while horses are shod with wide plate shoes.



 
 


Enjoy
Valete!